Water Authority: Sea of Galilee down two meters

The Sea of Galilee has seen worse winters, but this one wasn’t necessarily successful either as the water level of the Galilee rests two meters below the upper red line level.

Doron Markel, the head of the Kinneret monitoring and management department at the Water Authority, said that in addition to the lack of water there was a slump of garbage left by Passover vacationers.

Markel believes the water level will climb by only another 10 centimeters before it sets by summertime. According to the Water Authority, the lake's water level was 30 centimeters higher this time last year. The year before that, it was 130 centimeters higher.

According to Markel, the recent rainfall caused many to believe the water to be plentiful with rains beginning as early as October.

“All said and done, the lake's absorption capacity did not exceed 60 percent all winter long,” Markel said, explaining that water was lost because rainfall occurred over a long period of time.

“When the earth is wet, it increases the flow of water to lower places, and this is why we would have profited more from a shorter, more intense winter with rainfall occurring in concentrated bursts.”

While the Water Authority expected something much worse, late rains of March and April saved it from being an officially dry winter.

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